SHIPPING DISASTER OFF SCOTTISH COAST.

16 FEARED DROWNED.

The passenger and goods steamer Rowan, of the Laird Line Ltd., Glasgow, was sunk, following a double collision, shortly after mid-night on Saturday, off Corsewall Point, Wigtownshire. According to a statement issued officially in Glasgow last night, there were ninety-three souls, including the crew, on board, and of these seventy-seven were saved. Of the sixteen persons still missing, three were passengers and thirteen seamen. Two passengers died from injuries.

Rescue operations were carried out by the two other vessels involved in the collision, the American steamer West Camak, and the Clan Malcolm, as well as by the torpedodestroyer Wrestler. The warship lighted up the terrifying scene by its searchlights, and her crew achieved their share of the life-saving with fine promptitude. The master of the Rowan, Captain D. Brown, of Glasgow, was seen to go down with his vessel, and it is feared that he was lost.

Corsewall Point, at the mouth of Loch Ryan, which has a rather sinister record in shipping, was early this morning the scene of a disaster. The Rowan, one of the Laird Line steamers plying between Glasgow and Dublin, was involved in a double collision, the second impact of which sank her within a few minutes. It is not yet possible to ascertain the death-roll in this grim tragedy of the sea, but at the moment is feared that the number of victims will be about sixteen. The vessels involved in this double collision were the Rowan, bound from Greenock to Dublin, and the American

steamer, West Comak, inward bound, with a general cargo from San Francisco; and in the second instance the already crippled Rowan and the Glasgow steamer Clan Malcolm, outward bound for Natal, Delagoa Bay, and Mauritius. According to survivors the collision that originally crippled the Rowan occurred at 12.20 a.m. to-day. At that time she was steaming at from ten to twelve knots per hour, rather under the regular speed There were heavy banks of fog around the Wigtownshire coast, and from out of the fog there loomed the West Comak, going in the opposite direction, and as she struck the Rowan about the stern one must assume that it was a glancing blow.

SANK LIKE A STONE.

Despite the fact that most of the passengers were in their berths when the accident occurred, it is stated that there was no panic on board. The collision, indeed, did not appear to have caused serious damage to the Rowan, but Captain Brown gave orders to serve out lifebelts to all on board and prepare for lowering the lifeboats. At the same time S.O.S. signals were sent out. It is not known whether the Clan Malcolm was coming to the rescue, in response to the wireless summons; at all events, while fog still enveloped the scene, this big Clan liner crashed into the disabled Rowan, striking her amidships with such force as practically to cut her in two. The Rowan sank like a stone.

From the accounts of survivors, it is clear that the serving out of the life-belts after the first collision was the saving factor, for those on board, having been summoned on deck by the alarm given when the first collision occurred, were, in a position to fight for their lives when the other disastrous impact followed. It was well that Captain Brown’s orders were so promptly obeyed, because an interval of only ten minutes elapsed between the first minor collision and the second crash.